Topics and Sub-Topics by Paper for May 2011 Exam

PAPER 1

Peacemaking, peacekeeping--international relations 1918-36

  • Wilson's 14 Points; aims of participants & peacemakers
  • terms of the Paris Peace Treaties: Versailles, St. Germain, Trianon, Neuilly, Sevres/Lausanne
  • geopolitical and economic impact of treaties on Europe; mandate system
  • enforcement of the treaties: US Isolationism, retreat from Anglo-American Guarantee, Disarmament--Washington, London & Geneva Conferences
  • League of Nations: effects of absence of major powers; principles of collective security; early attempts at peacemaking (1920-1925)
  • Ruhr Crisis (1923); Locarno and Locarno Spring (1925)
  • Great Depression and threats to international peace & collective security; Manchuria (1931-33) & Abyssinia (1935-36)


PAPER 2

Topic 1: Causes, Practices, Effects of Wars

  • First World War
  • Second World War
  • Chinese Civil War (Asia Region)
  • Russian Civil War
  • Korean War (Asia Region)
  • Total War, Civil War & Limited War

Topic 3: Origins and development of authoritarian single-party states

  • Mao (Asia Region)
  • Hitler
  • Mussolini
  • Stalin
  • Khrushchev
  • Brezhnev
  • Gorbachev
  • conditions that produced these states
  • emergence of leaders: ideology, support, aims
  • totalitarianism: aim & extent to which it was achieved
  • form of govt. & ideology (left-wing & right-wing)
  • political, economic, social & religious policies

Topic 5: The Cold War

  • Wartime Conferences: Yalta & Potsdam
  • US policies & developments in Europe: Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO
  • Sino-Soviet Relations
  • Berlin (1945-1961)
  • Korea

PAPER 3 Aspects of the History of Europe & Middle East

European Diplomacy and First World War 1870-1923

  • European diplomacy and changing balance of power after 1870
  • Aims, methods, continuity & change in German foreign policy to 1914; global colonial rivalry
  • relative importance of Alliance System; decline of Ottoman Empire; Austria-Hungary and Balkan nationalism; arms race; international crises
  • effects on civilian population; impact of war on women socially & politically
  • Factors leading to the defeat of Germany & Central Powers (A-H, Ottomans, Bulgaria); strategic errors; economic factors; entry & role of USA
  • post-war treaties & their territorial, political & economic effects on Europe

Interwar Years: Conflict and Cooperation 1919-39

  • Hitler's domestic & foreign policies
  • Mussolini's domestic & foreign policies
  • Great Depression: impact on one country (we did Italy)
  • search for collective security; appeasement; failure of international diplomacy; outbreak of war in 1939

The Soviet Union & Eastern Europe 1924-2000

  • Stalin (1924-53): struggle for power; collectivization & industrialization; Five Year Plans; cult of personality; purges; impact on society; foreign relations to 1941
  • Great Patriotic War: breakdown of wartime alliances; Cold War; policies towards Germany; Berlin; Eastern Europe satellite states; Warsaw Pact
  • Khrushchev (1955-64): struggle for power after Stalin's death; de-Stalinization; Peaceful Coexistence; domestic policies; economics & agriculture; foreign relations; Hungary, Berlin, Cuba, China
  • Brezhnev: domestic & foreign policies
  • USSR: political change--Gorbachev

Imperial Russia, Revolutions, Emergence of Soviet State 1853-1924

  • Alexander II (1855-81): emancipation of serfs; military, legal, educational & local reforms: later reaction
  • policies of Alexander III (1881-1894) and Nicholas II (1894-1917): backwardness & attempts at modernization; nature of tsardom; growth of opposition movements
  • Significance of Russo-Japanese War (1904-05); 1905 Revolution; Stolypin & Duma; impact of First World War
  • 1917 Revolutions: February/March Revolution; Provisional Govt & Dual Power (Soviets); October/November Revolutions; Lenin; Trotsky
  • Lenin's Russia (1917-24): consolidation of new state; Civil War; War Communism; NEP; terror and coercion; foreign relations